


Floating: A Look inside the Mind Stone

by yuniesan



Series: Thanos Murder Squad [3]
Category: Black Panther (2018), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, How Do I Tag, I took parts of the lore of the stone, I write what I write, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Someone stop me, and made this, it's also got a mind of its own, it's short yes but still loved, its still a really short story, the soul stone is a cosmic entity, they're sad but they'll willing to find a way home, time moves differently in the stone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2019-11-01 08:15:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 6,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17863688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuniesan/pseuds/yuniesan
Summary: One by one they wake up in a world that is theirs, while not entirely theirs at all.





	1. Bucky

**Author's Note:**

> These are short snippiest of those who got "Dusted" because I remember something about the Soul Stone being used to collect souls.  
> Also I figured that I need to finish this whole series before the movie actually comes out, because I'm certain I will not be able to function properly after the movie..... None of us will.

When he opened his eyes, he swore he was still in Wakanda, there were trees everywhere, grass on the ground around him, and flowers spouting out from the ground. If it wasn’t for the tall buildings in the background that looked a little too much like New York, he would have just gone about his day and went in search of his friends. Except the memory of his body crumbling in front of Steve had felt so real. He no longer had the gun he carried, it didn’t belong to him and he knew this was somehow connected but he couldn’t shake the feeling of everything falling apart.

The battle was fresh in his mind, everyone running towards a single goal, to save humanity. He wasn’t sure if they were able to save anything, he couldn’t even save himself if he had turned to ash. He wasn’t sure where he stood, everything looked so different and yet so much of it looked the same. New York, even with all of the vegetation was still New York, in at the center of it all stood a tower with a big gleaming A on it. He’d seen it on the news before, when he had been on the run two years ago, but now it felt like a beacon. A way to something normal.

“You can’t stand here and wait for everything to fix itself,” he said to no one but himself, he wanted to make sure that he could hear something, since it was so eerily quiet around him.

 Moving forward he noticed the small stores, cafés that were open, with people inside, many of them asleep like he had been. When they woke up, they would realize that they weren’t home, where ever home was. They were all lost here, where ever here was, some weird idealist land that was both home and not home. He wondered if everything still worked the same way that had before they had all ended up where they were. If the coffee shops would still sell coffee, if he would be able to go to the supermarket and buy some plums.

He didn’t know who had survived the battle, he didn’t know if he had friends in this world, so he walked, the shining A in the distance, it wasn’t his home, but it was the home of the Avengers and in some ways, he had hoped that it would mean that someone he knew would be there waiting for him. But when he walked in through the front doors the lobby was empty, not a soul was in the building. He went to the elevator bank and pressed the button for the top floor and was surprised when it started moving.

When he reached the top, he looked out and saw a common area, the remnants of where people would have been, or where they could have been. Walking to the windows he looked out to see the wide expanse of a city he had once in another time, called home. There were still memories in his mind that were out of reach, even with Shuri helping him it was still a lot of work to get them to surface once again. The ones that had were the good memories, because the bad ones never really went away, the ones that made him feel like he had nothing but blood on his hands.

Now as he looked out all he saw was a world that wasn’t his, and he couldn’t help but feel as lost as he had been when he had been on the run. He had once again been ripped away from the world he knew and thrown into one that was unfamiliar.


	2. Sam

He was in his room in Avengers Tower, and it was a little weird to wake up in a place that no longer existed, a place that hadn’t existed for years. The thought of being there and not on the run was a strange one, stranger when he was in full gear on a bed that was too soft after the lumpy mattresses and the hard metal floor from the quinjet. The moment he woke he knew something was off, because life wouldn’t be this good to him after everything that had happened in the last few years.

“You know,” he heard someone say from the door. “I thought that I was the only one here,” the voice continued, and when he looked up, he saw James Barnes, the guy that he had been fighting with side by side before everything went to shit. He still couldn’t figure out what had happened, one moment he had been in the Wakandan forest as they went after Thanos, the next he had woken up in his old room.

“Of all the people to wake up to,” he said wanted to shove his head as far as he could into the mattress. Instead he got up felling the heavy weight of his wings on his back, the family ache of a long battle in his muscles, and the feeling that someone had been calling out to him before he had woken up. “Whose here?”

“Don’t really know, I woke up somewhere down the street and walked over, the building is on, there’s power and everything works but I’m not sure that we’re anywhere near home.”

“And where is home exactly, because last time I heard, this building was being taken apart, so it shouldn’t really exist.”

“Well maybe we should start looking for our people and finding our way out of whatever hell this is,” Barnes said before moving towards the door like he was looking for someone and found Sam instead.

“Do we even know who’s here?” Sam asked quickly getting up and moving towards the other man. “Wherever this is, because this place doesn’t exist so we’re either in some alternate dimension or the universe is messing with us.”

“Listen Sam, I don’t know where we are, if we’re alive, if we’ll see our friends again, but I do know that if there’s a chance I will take it, I’m done giving my life over to people who want to see me as some pawn in a bigger game.”

Sam knew that Barnes and his past were a complicated mixture of hell, he wasn’t sure what part of that life he remembers, but they were trapped in a world where it could very well be used against him if they didn’t tread lightly. So, with a sigh, Sam followed as Barnes began his search of the tower, never really knowing where the man was going, but at least they had a purpose.


	3. T'Challa

Okoye’s scared face was the first thing he remembered as he woke up in a lush forest at the top of a building, he looked out at the world in front of him and saw New York, but the fauna reminded him of home, the trees looked the same, but nothing was the same. His people were without a king again, and he didn’t know what happened to his family, or who was left of his people. The stones, they must have done their job, and what the mad titan had wished for has come to pass, but it would have left his world in chaos.

“I found a king,” someone said forcing him out of his thoughts to see the Falcon floating in front of him. Soon after Sergent Barnes walked over the lush greenery and joined them.

“I see you have found an ally,” T’Challa said looking at the pair. “Who else is here?”

“We don’t know, we’re still searching,” Barnes said as he leaned against one of the trees. “When I woke, I was down the street, and saw people sleeping in restaurants and cafés, this building was the only one that was turned on, I’m not sure why.”

“That would probably be Stark’s reactor,” T’Challa said knowing that the man had worked hard on building the structure. “If it exists in this world it should work here as well.”

“But why does this place exist?” Falcon asked him, and it was a question that at some point they would have to answer.

“The stone is responsible for this,” another voice joined them, a man they didn’t know dressed in blue, automatically they were on alert but the man put his hands up as a flying cloak attached itself to him. “The soul stone in particular,” he continued as if nothing was amiss.

“And who are you?” Barnes said his features tense. T’Challa knew that he had been fighting for too long, but the man was prepared for battle no matter what.

“I am Doctor Strange,” he said before sitting on a nearby rock and looking out at them. “I was with the Guardians, a spider boy, and Stark before we were sent here.”

“Are you the only one that ended up here?” T’Challa questioned, he needed to know just how many would be joining them.

“If you’re asking about how many of us have been transported to this world, I would say half of the population of the known universe,” the man named Strange said, the king didn’t understand how it would be possible for that many people to be in one place.

“Are you sure?” he asked curious of how the man knew this to be true.

“I am certain of it, and out of over 14 million possible outcomes, our lives are now in the hands of the original Avengers.”

“And how the hell do you know this?” Falcon asked looking at the man as if he had grown a second head.

“I am a master of the mystic arts, and I was the keeper of the Time Stone,” the man said and T’Challa felt the anger boil over inside of him.

“You mean to tell us, that you were in possession of one of these stones and from that you learned this?”

“I looked into the future, and into the past, there was only one way where we would win against Thanos, and the only possible positive outcome came from having Tony Stark and the Avengers together.”

“Shit,” Barnes said running his hands through his hair.

“You mean that if we hadn’t gone to war over the Accords, if we had just worked together, none of this would have happened,” the Falcon said.

“Yes, it is possible that if that fight hadn’t happened the world would have come out of this a whole lot better than what had come to pass.”

T’Challa, like Falcon and Barnes, knew that the outcome of that war and what had happened in the time since had had a terrible effect on the Avengers, mostly on their two leaders, because secrets had been kept and the two had been fighting for different things at the time. One for freedom and their past, the other for the sake of those around the world and their family.

“I think we should begin our search for those who would join us in this fight,” T’Challa said, knowing that the best way out of their current situation was letting go of their past disputes and fighting together.

“I know where we can start,” Strange said before pointing towards a group of people sitting at the far edge of the forest, as if they’re waiting for something to happen, two of which were holding one another.


	4. Gamora

She fell, that was the last thing that she truly remembered, the feeling of falling and losing everything that she had worked so hard to have. The family she had created with the Guardians, the fact that she had changed everything about her life and people didn’t fear her because her father was Thanos. Except he wasn’t her father, he was her abuser, the one who murdered her family and tortured her sister. The stone was a sadistic entity if it saw what he had done to her as any form of love, and sought to take everything away from her.

She had been in this world alone for what had felt like an eternity, knowing that she would never be with the people who truly cared about her. Her only motivation to continue moving forward was the bright beacon in the distance, a building powered like no other. So, she walked and walked until she reached it, the buildings surrounding the area were covered in greenery, this building especially, the only difference was that it was powered.

When she reached the top, she stayed at the edge of what looked like a forest on a balcony, no one else was around, and she didn’t feel hunger of any kind, so she just sat there and waited for the end of her days. Except right when she had decided to wait for death, the world opened up and bodies began to show up in the area around her.

That madman had succeeded and the stone was at fault, they were going to be trapped within for the rest of their days, but for the stone that would be an endless eternity. One half of all existence, their lives forever changed because of a misguided need to save something that didn’t need saving.

Her greatest surprise was when Peter appeared before her, he was asleep, like she had been when she had arrived, her heart beat faster and faster, he had fought for her and lost, she had fought for him and lost. Her only luck had been that he had shown up where she was, but as she watched in horror most of her crewmates began to show up, the only one missing was Rocket, and her sister Nebula.

“I’m sorry,” she said to them as they lay on the ground at her feet. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t stop him from doing this.”

The more people that appeared the more she feared that the universe was doomed, there was no way out of where they were, not unless someone had figured out how to revive the stones and create another gauntlet.

As they awoke, she saw the surprise on Peter’s face, the look of hope in his eyes, and nothing but love as he carefully mapped out her features, as if he were too unsure about whether or not she was real.

“You’re here,” he said smiling for the first time.

“I am,” she said to him before they embraced one another as if there were no others around, love and family, and right now she had both, even with the devastation that would be cause because of it.

In quick burst, Peter told her what had happened on Titan, he told her about meeting a Spiderman, and an Iron Man, about a wizard who looked into the future and only saw one outcome where they would win. He pointed the man out, as he stood on the far end of the rooftop forest speaking with three others.

“We need a plan,” Peter said to her.

“There is no plan Peter, we’re not going to get very far, we’re in the soul stone,” she said to him, the only reason she knew anything about the stone was because she needed to find a way to subvert Thanos and his plans.

“Wait did you say that we’re in the stone,” a man with wings on his back said walking over to them. His friends not far behind him.

“The snap it causes the souls of the of those who fade to be transported into the soul stone, this is a world created by the stone, and without a way back we’re trapped in here for all eternity.”

“I’m not going to be trapped in here because some crazy ass purple grape decided to put me here,” the man with the wings said. “I have a life to get back to, no more running.”

“What do you expect us to do Sam,” said a man with a metal arm.

“What we do best, fight our way out,” the man named Sam said. “We have one chance according to that guy over there, so we might as well give those on the other side a fighting chance, by helping them from within.”

She wasn’t sure if it were possible, but she wanted to fight as well, she wanted to fix the wrongs that had been caused, but most of all she wanted a chance to fight against the Titan that had caused her so much grief.


	5. Peter (Parker)

He wasn’t sure what he was feeling, he remembered his body slowly crumbling away as someone held onto him. So now as someone was shaking his body, he wasn’t sure if he was still alive and just passed out or if there was such a thing as heaven. He wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

“Hey kid wake up,” the voice said, but all he wanted to do was roll over and pretend that he was still on some random planet with Mr. Stark, the Wizard and the people who called themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy.

“I got this,” another voice said before they slapped him across his face.

Peter’s eyes snapped open as he came face to face with someone he wouldn’t have expected, “Jesus,” he said in surprise before the first voice started laughing.

“Not quiet,” the man with the metal arm said, the same guy he remembered from the airport.

Looking around he saw a group of familiar faces, and some unfamiliar ones, but there was one thing he knew for sure, he wasn’t in Queens anymore. Everything around them was lush with greenery, but there were buildings that looked familiar, Avengers Tower wasn’t far away from them which meant they were either in the future or they died and heaven looked like New York covered in green.

“Where are we?” he asked as he sat up, he didn’t feel dizzy, he didn’t feel like he had been turned to ash, he felt like himself.

“That’s the problem kid, we’re not in Kansas anymore,” the metal armed guy said. He knew the guy’s name, he was sure of it but at the moment the name escaped him.

“Oh man, Aunt May is going to kill me,” he said out loud before running a hand through his unruly hair. He was still in the suit that Mr. Stark had given him, he was still Spiderman, except he wasn’t sure where he was and all he wanted to do was go home and hang out with his friends.

Someone was laughing behind him and when he turned, he saw the Falcon sitting on a rock just laughing at him while pointing. “I doubt she could even if she tried,” he said before getting up. “Not unless she’s here.”

“The stone,” a familiar voice said and when Peter turned the wizard was standing in front of him, some of the people Peter knew to be a part of the Avengers, others he never met, and one was a tree, a freaking walking tree. “The stone is sentient, as she was saying, when I let Thanos have the time stone, I foresaw the future, and right now it’s up to Stark to fix this before everything goes to hell.”

“You put our lives on the line by giving that purple alien the stone,” a woman with red hair said, as she appeared from what looked like the inside of Stark tower, she didn’t look happy at all. “And now you’re telling me that it’s up to Tony Stark to save us all,” she started laughing before she started crying. “If it hadn’t been for you Vision wouldn’t have died,” the tears were falling freely now, and Peter knew that she had lost someone.

“Not just Stark,” the wizard said. “There was only one outcome out of millions where we stood a chance of winning, that outcome is contingent on Stark and Rogers working together.”

Everyone stared at Strange like he was crazy as if what he were asking were impossible, but Peter understood, whatever had happened during that Civil War it had been the root of the problem. They would have worked together otherwise if it hadn’t been for that fight. So, if the only way they could go back home was by forcing the two leaders of the Avengers to work together then it had to work.

“Do you think the tower is fully operational?” Peter asked trying to divert the attention from the depressing conversation. “I mean if it’s like the one in our New York, then that means that there’s a chance that we could get some food, maybe a shower too.”

“Is that all you can think about?” Falcon said to him as if he had the audacity to think about anything but their predicament.

“Well from the sound of what he said, we’re stuck here so we might as well find shelter and food, because honestly, I don’t want to know what happens here after dark,” Peter said before getting up and walking in the direction of the tower at the center of the lush greenery around them.

“Teenagers,” Falcon said before they followed Peter into the building.

Peter for the most part tuned them all out as they argued over what had happened, he knew that he should be worried, about his friends, about Aunt May, even Mr. Stark, the memory of him begging to live fresh in his mind. The thought made him shutter just thinking about fading into nothingness, but if he could keep himself distracted for a little while he was going to do it. The last thing he remembered about the tower was that it was being torn down, which was a real shame because it was nice to have the Avengers in the city, he didn’t have to be the lone superhero. Then again, Mr. Stark told him to be a friendly neighborhood Spiderman, and of course not listening to him led to him being on the donut in space and eventually fading away lightyears from home. So, for now, he decided to focus on something else, and that was food.

 


	6. Laura Barton

Laura couldn’t help but look out at what was the idyllic world in front of her, as beautiful as it was, it wasn’t home, it wasn’t her kids or her husband. She wasn’t sure just how much time had passed since they arrived, it had only been a few days, but she already hated what fate had given her. It made her think about how she ended up with a man who would become a part of a superhero team, her life had been so different back then, she had been a SHIELD agent just like her husband. She remembered Fury’s anger over the fact that she had fallen for her asset, but how could anyone blame her, Clint had been something she hadn’t expected. 

She remembers his constant flirting, and her constant reminders that it was against the rules for them to be involved. Their first kiss had happened after Clint had almost died during a mission, she had been worried sick as she sat by his hospital bed, but he had just smirked and pulled her in. To be honest she could have just blamed it on the drugs he had been on, but she didn’t, because it had been hard for her to pull away from the man. There had been on very memorable night in a broom closet, where Coulson had been the one to find them, she remembers Clint screaming when the door opened.

“Don’t be such a girl Barton,” she had told him as a joke, but Coulson had only rubbed his eyes sighed and forced them into a conference room. She had to step down as his handler after that, but she still worked at SHIELD, it wasn’t until just after their  one-year  anniversary, when she had found out she was pregnant with Coop, and decided that maybe she wanted to settle down with the archer.

“I’m not sure if I would be a good husband, let alone a good father,” Clint had told her, so they broke it off, she went on her way looking for a new job to take care of her kid. Fury had given her freelance work that she could do from a remote location, and a piece of land with a small very  broken-down  house that she could live in.

“Don’t worry,” he had told her, “He’ll come around.”

It took Clint two months after she had left before he had come looking for her, “My father wasn’t a really good person,” he had told her, followed by his long history with his own family.

“Clint, you’re not your father,” she told him with a smile, “But you don’t have to be here, or do anything if you don’t want to, I’m not going to force you.”

She had given him a way out of her life, but Clint didn’t go, he came and went, they had taken the time to relearn one another, to understand one another. Clint opened up to her, and on his downtime started remodeling the house, the first room being the baby’s room, and then the bathroom and finally the master suite. They didn’t sleep together again until three months later, that was when Clint had finally come to terms that he wasn’t his father, and that he wanted his little family more than anything. They got married a week before Cooper came into their lives, the house freshly painted, as Fury ordained the wedding, with only two other people there, Coulson, who was now Clint’s handler, and Maria Hill who had become a very close friend to the couple.

Lila, her sweet beautiful little girl, had been conceived two years later, from the beginning Laura was sure about two things, Clint was completely in love with his daughter and Lila had her father’s sharp eye. The last memory she had of her daughter was of her and her father practicing with a bow and arrow, she was really the next generation of Hawkeye, and Laura wouldn’t fault her for  it  either.

The Battle of New York had been a test to their marriage, to their relationship, and not because of Clint’s involvement, but because of what came afterwards. Laura had wished that she had been better equipped to handle her husband’s PTSD, the best she could do was sit there and try her best, but Clint was afraid, especially after a particularly horrible nightmare that led to him punching her. It took months for him to overcome a lot of it, but the guilt over hitting her made it worse for the man who had already felt guilty for his son’s godfather's death. 

“You are not what Loki made you believe,” she told him after he had a particularly bad day, “You’re a wonderful husband and father Clint, and if I have to I will make my way to  Asgard  and punch the man myself to make up for what he’s done to you.”

She remembered his laugh after that, she remembered his eyes clearing up a little. It would take months of therapy before he was whole again, but she didn’t let go of him. She did her best and made sure that he had a safe space to go home to. Eight months before Clint moved in with the Avengers, so that they could go after Hydra, they renewed their wedding vows, their kids there with them, Fury, Hill, and even a not so dead Coulson were there. The kids went with their Uncle Coulson for the weekend while she went with Clint on a second honeymoon. Now that she looks back, she was certain that Nate, her little baby boy, was conceived that weekend.

The Avengers tower had everything in the same place it had been when the Avengers existed, before the Civil War, it had also given her a look into the life her husband had when he hadn’t been at home, his nest away from his home, high above the New York City streets. The room was devoid of anything that held the knowledge of their family, well mostly, there was a drawing that Coop had done for h is  father, a small toy that belonged to Lila, and a piece of a plant that they grew on the farm right on the nightstand.

She broken down crying right at that moment, she was alone, even with a building full of Avengers and people who had fought with them, she was alone because her family wasn’t here, her husband wasn’t there with her.

“They’ll fix this,” the deep voice of Nick Fury said as he stood before her. “They’re good at avenging the wrongs of the world.”

She couldn’t help but laugh at his words, “You know after the whole thing at the airport, after everything that had happened at that stupid pissing match, he swore he wouldn’t go back.”

“It you he’s fighting for now,” Fury said to her. “He’s fighting for his family, and that holds more weight over everything else.”

“What do we do until they get us?”

“I guess we keep an eye on everyone here, if you haven’t noticed there’s a lot of kids around, and even more aliens than I have ever seen.”

“Do you think they’re friendly?”

“I know some of them are, but I also know that you’re the strongest person here if you’ve had to deal with Barton for as long as you have.”

“Well I love him and all of his faults, he makes life worth living, and he gave me the greatest gifts I could ask for,” she said rubbing her stomach, feeling the life forming there, it shouldn’t be possible, but she wasn’t sure what was possible anymore.


	7. Groot

“I am Groot,” he complained, because no one was listening to him. No one cared, he just wanted to see Rocket, but all he could remember was the heartbroken face of the raccoon that had raised him since he was nothing but a little  sapling .

Instead of trying to talk to the group again he walked away, making his way towards the terrace overlooking the place they would be trapped in. He wasn’t sure how long he would be there for, because everything felt temporary no matter how long he had in any world.

He planted himself on the ground there, no one would think anything of it, they all just saw him as a tree. “I am  G root,” he mumbled to himself  knowing that no one was really paying attention.

“Whoa, did you just talk,” a boy said swinging in from behind him. 

Groot couldn’t help but turn and look at him, he was curious how the creature was able to move around as he did, sticking to the walls, but having the face of a  terran . “I am Groot,” he said trying to tell him that he was interested in how he moves, but he realized too late that the creature wouldn’t understand him, not many did.

“You’re so cool, I’m Peter Parker by the way, not Peter Quill like your friend, can you just talk and move or can you do other things?” the boy named Peter asked, talking faster than Groot had ever heard someone talk.

“I am Groot,” he said pointing towards his arm before extending it to where the boy Peter was climbing the wall.

“Cool,” the boy Peter said to him before taking his hand and shaking it.

“I am Groot,” he said wondering if the boy could stick to his hand, but he couldn’t figure out how to convey what he was saying, he couldn’t say much. Without preamble the boy Peter grabbed on and stuck to him. “I am Groot,” he said with glee, and the boy smiled at him.

“I’m guessing you and I are around the same age,” the boy Peter said once he swung down and stood next to him. “We can stay together, I may not be able to understand you very well, but your facial expressions show enough for me to understand you.”

“I am Groot,” he said grateful of someone he could talk too. He took the boy Peter’s hand and brought him into the building before pointing at a controller on the ground, he wondered if it was the same as the game he had had before, the one that Rocket had given him. “I am Groot.”

“Oh, you  wanna  play, well this is a  PlayStation , I guess back when this was still in New York the Avengers played games,” the boy Peter said to him. “If it works, I’ll teach you how to play and we can play the game together.”

Groot watched as his new friend went to the big flat thing on the wall and turned it on, his face lighting up with glee when it did, he pointed at it and then smiled at Groot before turning back and grabbing a game to put into a black box on the wall.

“It looks like we can play,” the boy Peter told him with joy in his eyes, “This game is called Star Wars Battlefront, maybe later we can watch the movies since the TV works, the game works too which is interesting. You’ll like it, I’ll show you how to play it.”

“I am Groot,” he said with a smile, it was nice making a new friend, one that would play games with him instead of yelling at him for being obsessed with the toy.

“It’s good to have new friends, I know, I miss my friends,” the boy Peter said. “Maybe if they’re here, I can introduce you to some of them, and not all of the adults around here, would you like that?”

“I am Groot,” he said smiling for the first time. It really was nice making a new friend.


	8. Natasha Romanoff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is is the last chapter

She had been there, alone for what felt like an eternity, she had stopped counting the days since she woke up alone. The stone had slowly crafted her home around her, the only home she really had had after so many years. Avengers Tower stood in the  distance,  she had gone off on a trip a few weeks ago just to give herself something else to look at for a while. There was only so much she could do on her own. The stone regenerated food for her, it gave her everything she needed, except the people she cared about.

As she made her way through the streets of fake New York, she knew something had changed in her absence, there were eyes looking at her. There were people milling around, she wasn’t alone anymore and it made her heart hurt. She knew that this day was coming, she had spent the last three years waiting for it, and the five years before that wanting to have them all back. She ran the rest of the way back to the tower, knowing that they would have gone there first, because Tony had made it a beacon for heroes, even when they were still just the six of them. It had become their home when others had started to join them. She could never truly feel at home at the upstate facility, because it meant that they weren’t all together.

By the time she reached the lobby she was out of breath, and she had realized that more and more people were peeking out from the buildings, this was the other half of the known universe. They were all trapped here, and hopefully not for long, hopefully with all of the stones together they would leave soon. She had realized that time moved differently here, she hadn’t aged much since she arrived, with the position of the sun and the moon, which she was certain was fake, it had only been a matter of months since she arrived, maybe three or four, even though with their arrival she knew that three years had passed. They would have to wait another five here before anything happened, but here that could be close to six months which was better than five years.

She didn’t turn back, instead moving towards the elevator and pressing the button with as much urgency as she could muster. The damn thing wasn’t moving fast enough, but once it was on the main Avengers  floor,  she was afraid of going through the doors and finding out that none of them were there. 

When the doors opened, she knew that they had come home, she heard the sounds of the television, she smelled food being cooked in the kitchen, most likely is was Wanda making something wishing Vision was there with her. She heard people talking, some laughing others arguing, but it was him standing there in the middle of the floor, he was the first person she saw. There were so many memories of him, the years in the red room, the day he shot her trying to get to the person she was protecting, the first time she had seen him in Washington while she had been with Steve and Sam. He had gone after her like it was his mission, but she knew it had been because somewhere in his mind he knew that she had been important. 

There was a secret that she had held onto, since the moment she had met up with Steve and Sam after the fight with Tony, after their family fell apart. The only other person who knew the secret of the whole thing was  T’Challa , he swore that he wouldn’t tell a soul, and he had kept his word. The secret rendezvous, allowing her to see him, she had become his  anchor  to the world that had forsaken him, as his memories of their time together returned.

“James,” she said out loud, she watched as his eyes widened at the sight of her, her hair longer than the last time that they had seen each other, back to its original red, he must of thought she was a ghost there to haunt him.

“Tasha,” he said and without waiting he rushed over to her and pulled her into his arms, she knew he wanted to ask questions, she knew he was holding back, because like her, he was afraid of it being a dream.

Slowly everyone else stopped what they had been doing, walking over to see what was happening, she knew that she was going to have to explain things to them, but for now all that she had was the smell of James and the feeling of home, and she wasn’t going to let go of it for a little while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I waited on writing the last three until after I got to where I am with Intergalactic, mainly because we all know what happens with Natasha, but it's mostly a look at three of my favorite characters, on of which is very minor. Yes I actually like Laura Barton, because there has to be a reason for someone to love Clint who is a Pizza Dog loving weirdo. They're the best couple outside of my ships and you can rip them from my cold dead hands. Outside of Stony, I love BuckyNat, blame it on the comic books, but I do think that they deserved a better story in the MCU, because Seb and Scarlett love them too!!!!

**Author's Note:**

> The Properties of the Stone  
> • The Soul Gem is sentient; it has a desire to collect souls.   
> • The gem can attack another's soul in various ways.   
> • The gem can reveal information by peering into another's soul or using the 'Cold Light of Truth.   
> • The gem can trap souls inside itself in an idyllic world.   
> • The gem's wielder can access the memories and skills of those imprisoned within Soul World.   
> • The gem can revert beings to their natural state.   
> • The gem gives control over any and all life be it sentient or not.   
> • The gem protects its wielder from soul-based attacks.   
> • The gem's power can circulate life and death forces on a planetary scale.   
> • The gem can disrupt the anima of a soul with a karmic blast rendering the target temporarily unconscious. Certain beings are immune to this attack


End file.
